KEEPING FILIPINO CRUISE EMPLOYEES IN DEMAND

The cruise industry calls for dedicated Filipino tourism professionals who specialize in a variety of areas. Cooks, waiters, wine experts, hosts, gym instructors, and many more go onboard year in and out, earning dollars for their families. Yet despite the attractions of this industry, a great void still remains to be filled in cruise ship job opportunities. This need has put many manning companies under pressure. They need to fill requests for skilled workers and professionals, maintain the same work excellence, and make sure the Philippines maintains its footing in the industry. Engineer Ambatali of Philippine Transmarine Carriers, Inc. is an officer of one such company that deals with this issue every day.

The real problem, according to him, is not that there are no willing or skilled applicants. It is a fact that countless hopefuls flock to manning agencies to work on cruise ships. The real problem is that not all these applicants show the desirable level of confidence and communication ease that distinguishes cruise workers and professionals from others in the maritime industry. Of course we cannot sacrifice quality just to fill orders for new cruise personnel. He took a necessary step, therefore, and asked for assistance from a group of professionals with exciting English enhancement methods proven effective for many skilled workers and professionals.

Advanced Speech and Academic Professionals or ASAP has conducted trainings with various maritime companies. It has trained people from rank and file on the critical skills necessary for English fluency: grammar refinement, English proficiency, use of idiomatic language, conversational skills, accent neutralization, essay writing, technical communications, and business English. So, from December 2005 to January 2006, PTC applicants underwent the “Cruise English – Presentation and Social Interaction Skills in the Global workplace” seminar.

ASAP took into great consideration the fact that “PTC services a wide range of principals worldwide from the Far East , U.S., Europe, Middle East and Scandinavia.” This helped the program developers to have the central principle of “Global English.” Simply put, the world has become one global community via communication technology. Cruise professionals should likewise display the same international consciousness. This streamlined approach to dealing with passengers will allow for a comfortable and memorable cruise experience. This global consciousness can be felt in ASAP’s lessons, activities, discussion topics, and mock presentations. One example of a section of the course is that of “Englishes” all over the globe. This talks of the variety of English variations in different countries. What makes these versions unique and how best should one communicate with these speakers? The participants, on their part, showed enthusiasm, eagerness to learn, and open-mindedness to comments regarding their performance as communicators. Their positive response has inspired Engineer Ambatali to further maintain collaboration with ASAP as a training affiliate for future projects.

Another critical part of the training was the job interview coaching. ASAP’s goal was to equip participants with the knowledge, skills, and confidence needed for answering questions in English. It was here that participants realized the skills that they needed to enhance in order to pass job interviews successfully. The training brought on laughs, of course, but after that realization set in and they worked hard to improve their performance. All of their hard work paid off. Engineer Ambatali is proud to announce that at least 95% of the participants passed their job interview with foreign nationals and they are now earning dream incomes for their families.

First learn the meaning of what you say, and then speak. – Epictetus